The Thunder Bay Health Coalition will be announcing its plans to participate in the grassroots referendum to safeguard and restore local community hospital services from cuts. Plans will be announced, including the location of community voting stations, at a media event this Wednesday.

Volunteers in more than 40 communities across Ontario have now launched the cross-province volunteer-led referendum. Momentum continues to build as more and more communities join-in the mass vote.

Public hospitals across Ontario are experiencing devastating cuts. Ontario is currently in the ninth consecutive year of real-dollar cuts to global hospital budgets, the longest stretch in Ontario's history. These cuts mean that local public hospitals across the province cannot keep up even with basic inflation. Hospitals have been cut to the point of dangerous overcrowding and understaffing and patients are paying the price.

Thunder Bay's hospital is in chronic gridlock. It is so overcrowded that patients are waiting for days on stretchers in hallways and common areas.